I do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor.... Here, within this great city of nine million people, we must, in this neighborhood, on this street, in this parish, regain a sense of community which is the basis for peace in the world.

When you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them.

God meant for things to be much easier than we have made them

It is only through religion that communism can be achieved, and has been achieved over and over.

The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them.

Do not give to the poor expecting to get their gratitude so that you can feel good about yourself. If you do, your giving will be thin and short-lived, and that is not what the poor need; it will only improvish them further. Give only if you have something you must give; give only if you are someone for whom giving is its own reward.

Dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.